1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical instrument having a stabilization apparatus and, more particularly, to a stringed musical instrument, such as an electric violin, having a stabilization apparatus to enable the musical instrument to support itself against a musician's body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Musical instruments of the type having a body, a fretted neck and strings, e.g., violins and electric violins, require the support of portions of a musician's body to be played properly. The instrument is supported at one end by the musician's hand gripping the neck and at the other end by the musician's chin resting against the chin rest on the top of the instrument and the musician's shoulder supporting a shoulder rest on the bottom of the instrument. Such an instrument requires the use of one hand to support the neck and for the musician's neck to be bent at an angle to support the instrument between the musician's chin and shoulder. This traditional stringed instrument, by requiring one hand of the musician to support the neck and the musician's neck to be bent at a particular angle, is suitable for a stationary musician, but limits the movement of the musician while playing the instrument. Further, by requiring the neck of the musician to be bent at a particular angle while applying pressure on the chin rest of the instrument, fatigue begins to set in at the neck of the musician during extended play of the instrument. Also, while the musician is not playing the instrument, the left hand of the musician must support the neck of the instrument, otherwise, the instrument will fall to the ground. This traditional instrument, therefore, limits the use to only one hand of the musician for other purposes, such as playing another instrument like a piano. Movement by the musician is also restricted while the instrument is being played.
Other instruments have been designed to provide improved support of the traditional instrument having a single chin rest and shoulder rest at one end and a neck which is supported by the musician's hand at the other end. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,197 issued to Bried shows a violin having a neck strap affixed to one end of the violin. The neck strap is fastened around the neck of the musician and may be used in addition to or instead of a chin rest. This type of instrument requires the use of one of the musician's hands to support the neck of the violin, or else the violin will fall against and be parallel to the body of the musician. Also, this type of violin is free to rotate about the attachment point of the neck strap and the violin such that only limited support is provided in maintaining the violin in a fixed position. Still further, the violin of Bried can only practically be played when the body of the violin is substantially parallel to the ground, which makes the playing of the violin somewhat difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,219 issued to Alm, shows an electric violin having a U-shaped neck ring affixed to one end of the electric violin. The neck ring is placed around the neck of the musician to support one end of the instrument. Again, however, to some extent, one hand of the musician is required to support the electric violin at its neck. Also, the electric violin is free to rotate about the musician's neck, thereby limiting the effect of stabilizing the electric violin at a fixed position.
Other examples of conventional musical stringed instruments with some sort of attachment which functions to contact the musician's chin, neck, shoulders or torso are U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,461 issued to Ivie, U.S. Des. Pat. No. 249,295 issued to Pinkins, Jr., and U.S. Des. Pat. No. 338,222 issued to Steinberger. These other examples of musical instruments having supports require the use of one hand at the neck of the instrument to partially support the instrument, thus restricting use of this hand during periods that the instrument is not being played and fatiguing the same hand. Further, these other supports allow rotation of the musical instrument about some axis, thereby limiting the extent to which the instrument is stabilized in a fixed position. These supports also do not orient the instruments in such a way as to facilitate easy playing of the instrument. The inventor has discovered the above-note problems and has developed solutions to these problems.